Social Media: 10 Ideas for Your Organization

Social Media is proving to be a profitable way to market organizations. Social networking sites like Facebook now have over 3 million members sharing information 24/7. Engaging with this community represents a shift in mind set for many marketing professionals.

Here are ten social media marketing ideas that your organization should contemplate:

1. Analyze your online presence:

Take another look at your website. Is it well designed? Does it fit what your users want to do? Can you add additional tools that would support your clients? Get some feedback from your client group. Research shows that the longer a customer spends on your website the more likely they are to make a purchase. Adding reviewing facilities, recommender tools, wish lists and blogs all add to time spent at your site. Make sure that you use analytical tools to identify who uses your website and how they get there. Use the resulting information to optimize your website for search engines.

2. Audit your Social Media availability:

Ensure that you have quick links in place so that users can link to Twitter, Facebook, Digg, Delicious etc. at all times. Create news feeds so that customers can set up RSS links directly to their pages. In other words check that it is easy for information about your organization to be shared wherever possible. If you decide that your organization should have a blog, Facebook page or Twitter stream make sure that these are active tools with frequent new content.

3. Create a Facebook poll:

A recent campaign for “Target” allowed Facebook users to vote in a poll to choose how the company should allocate a charitable donation.  Your poll could be about a decision the organization needs to make such as a new product name.

4. Release a viral widget:

The best of these allow your customers to build something that they can then share on their blog or social networking page. A nice example was a campaign based around the “Mad Men” TV series. The widget allowed users to create customizable cartoon avatars to decorate their Facebook page. Such widgets can create fabulous free advertising for your product or organization.

5. Create awards:

Make sure that the prizes are awarded to active connected individuals who post regularly. They will do your advertising for you. Prizes could be a visit to your company or training on your product. In other words an experience that the winner might want to share with others.

6. Build a Discussion Forum:

A forum built around issues that your customers are interested in is an excellent way to educate and inform. Alternatively use a forum for your users to provide feedback about your organization. Software companies such as Oracle have been very successful in doing this. Users send in information about bugs and individual developers respond. Users really love the direct contact. This is excellent reputation management and the feedback is invaluable for improving their product.

7. Create a Media Event:

Publicize your new products with a media event. This could be a talk by a revered commentator in your field, a training session or debate. The event should be advertised in advance through a variety of media e.g. emails, websites, postings or a Twitter stream. Video of the event can be streamed live from your website (although check you have the band width). A recent example is the Nobel Foundation that streamed each prize giving live and then allowed users to pose question to the winners via Twitter. Todays election of President Obama is no exception.  Louis Vuitton recently publicized their fashion show in a similar way to great effect. Live voting via Twitter could enhance such events. Some television companies have recently started experimenting in this area.

8. Create a Viral Video or Application:

A great example of this is the Carling ipint application that makes use of the motion sensor in the ipod to create a pint that you can “drink”. The application was freely downloadable from the internet and became a hit overnight. Amusing or sensational content is the key here. Release your viral product and monitor the resulting buzz.

9. Reputation Building:

Nominate one of your team as the online advocate for your product or company. They should create a blog of their daily thoughts and novel information. The advocate should spend a portion of every week adding comments in relevant forums. This person should always reveal their connections with your organization in an open and transparent manner.

10. Reputation Monitoring:

What is being said about your organization on the internet? Automated tools should be used to monitor your online reputation. Your online advocate should actively engage in these conversations giving feedback and further information. Quick open responses are well received by socially networked groups.

Social Media Marketing is an emerging discipline. However it is also a relatively cheap compared to traditional techniques.The only way to really understand how it works for your organization is to be creative, experiment and learn from the results.

PS: Thanks to Black Glass for borrowing me their Social Media image in this post!